“He was asked what he hankered!
His lips moved but no words were uttered!
Like the parched earth waited for the sweet rain!
He just wanted someone to take away his pain!”
Most of my snaps in social media will have me wearing a shade or sunglasses! It is not because how someone once said that the more My face is covered, the better it looks! The reason is different!
Do you know what is common between Julius Caesar, Napoleon, JFK, Sigmund Freud, Charles Darwin, Sunil Shetty, SRK, Mahesh Babu, Manoj Bajpayee, Serena Williams, Hugh Jackman and Me!
No, it is not that we all are hated or loved by many (which is still true!) but all of them (us!) suffered from this debilitating condition which may actually be one of the commonest symptom in the world!
In fact at any given time period it is the third most common disease in the world!
Do not worry! It is not depression (though again it may be there!); but the correct answer is Migraine!
If you actually talk about headache as such then almost every one has had a headache in his or her life at some point! Migraine of course is much more debilitating and though it is a diagnosis of exclusion, it is very exclusive!
There are some forms of Migraine which can even happen without headache and can cause even hearing loss or dizziness!
Migraine is one the oldest ailments known to mankind. Some of the earliest cases of painful headaches were recorded by the ancient Egyptians and date back as far as 1200 B.C.
Much later, in around 400 B.C., Hippocrates referred to the visual disturbances that can precede a migraine such as flashing lights or blurred vision, which we call aura. He also described the relief felt by sufferers after vomiting!
The credit for migraine discovery, however, was given to Aretaeus of Cappadocia who described in the second century the one sided or unilateral headaches that are typical of migraines as well as the associated vomiting and the windows of time between migraines that are symptom free.
The word migraine was derived from the Latin word “hemicrania” meaning “half” (hemi) “skull” (crania). This term was first used by Galenus of Pergamon to describe the pain felt across one side of the head during a migraine. He also suggested that the pain originated in the meninges and vasculature of the head.
In addition, he pointed towards a connection between the stomach and the brain due to the vomiting that seemed to be related to migraines.
In 1979, Moskowitz, a professor of neurology at Harvard Medical School, proposed that migraines result from an interaction between the trigeminal nerve – involved in detecting sensations from the head and face – and the thin, pain-sensitive “meninges” membranes that surround the brain. He demonstrated that migraine attacks were triggered when trigeminal nerve fibres released chemicals called neuropeptides that caused the blood vessels of the meninges to dilate, resulting in inflammation and pain. He suggested that blocking the action of these neuropeptides could provide a new type of treatment.
Another breakthrough came when Goadsby, together with Edvinsson, a professor of internal medicine at Lund University in Sweden and the president of the International Headache Society, identified the key neuropeptide involved in triggering these attacks: calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)!
Goadsby and his colleagues have been awarded the Brain Prize for their research into the cause and treatment of migraines. The prize, worth 10 million Danish kroner ($2 million Cdn), is awarded yearly by the The Lundbeck Foundation in Denmark for outstanding and ongoing research in neuroscience!
Now that is serious money which can keep at least some headache away!
For all the seriousness and debilitation migraine causes, you must also understand that this is one condition whose attacks can be prevented if you can get to know the triggers!
That is where the shades come in! If like me, your trigger is the sunlight then shade away! Other triggers are some stuff which you can avoid, meals which you should not skip and sleep which you must have complete and good! Most of the time, hydration is the key and hiding from sun normally helps! Every person has his or her own Migraine trigger and recognising that it the key! I always say though that only those with a good head can have headache so having Migraine may make you a person with a great head! Tackling any condition and getting over it is the real deal which reminds me of birthday celebrity Nara Chandrababu Naidu.
Now do not strain at the screen for long since even that can cause headache and ironically that headache shows you do not have ‘Head’!
Shubh ratri!
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